Power supply device for plasma processing
A power supply device for plasma processing, wherein electric arcs may occur, comprises a power supply circuit for generating a voltage across output terminals, and a first switch connected between the power supply circuit and one of the output terminals. According to a first aspect the power supply device comprises a recovery energy circuit connected to the output terminals and to the power supply circuit. According to a second aspect the power supply device comprises an inductance circuit including an inductor and a second switch connected parallel to the inductor. According to a third aspect the power supply device comprises a controller for causing the power supply circuit and the first switch to be switched on and off. The controller is configured to determine a quenching time interval by means of a self-adaptive process. The quenching time interval defines the time interval during which, in an event of an arc, no voltage is generated across the output terminals.
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This is a division of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/701,813, filed Feb. 8, 2010, which claims the foreign priority of European Patent Application No. 09405031.7, filed Feb. 17, 2009 in the names of Albert BULLIARD, Benoit FRAGNIERE, Joel OEHEN, and Olivier CARDOU and entitled A POWER SUPPLY DEVICE FOR PLASMA PROCESSING, the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference herein.
FIELD OF THE INVENTIONThe invention concerns a power supply device for plasma processing.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONThere are variety of processes in which a plasma is generated to deposit and/or to remove material. Examples are the process of sputtering, where material is removed from a target and deposited on a substrate in order to produce e.g. a thin film, or the process of etching, where atoms are removed in order to create e.g. a very clean surface.
To produce the plasma, a high voltage is generated between electrodes by means of a suitable power supply device. However, the processing conditions may be such that there is a sudden electrical discharge for instance between the electrodes which causes the occurrence of one or more arcs. Normally, such arc events are to be prevented since they may lead e.g. to damages in the target or to a poor quality of the surface to be processed.
It is widely known to use a switch for interrupting the power supply to the electrodes when an arc event occurs (see e.g. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,192,894 or 6,621,674 B1). However, interruption of the power supply gives rise to the problem that the energy which is stored e.g. in the cables at the time of interruption is supplied to the plasma, which may impede a quick quenching of the arc. Eventually, the duration until the plasma processing is in an arc-free condition and operates normally may be prolonged.
The patent application US 2004/124077 A1 refers to a power supply which is suitable in the field of so-called HiPIMS (“High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering”). The power supply, which produces very short pulses of extremely high power, is provided with a capacitor that is repetitively charged and then discharged through an inductor. When an arc is detected, the capacitor is first disconnected from the inductor by actuating a first switch and then connected to the inductor again by actuating two other switches such that the energy contained in the inductor is recycled to the capacitor. Compared to this recycled energy, the energy contained in any cables connecting the output terminals of the power supply with the plasma processing chamber is negligible. Thus, no measures are provided to recover this energy in the cables.
In the patent application US 2008/309402 A1, it is proposed to use a pre-charging/discharging cicuit for pre-charging a capacitor under normal operating conditions. When an arc is detected, an amount of the residual energy which is stored in the cables leading to the plasma processing chamber is transferred into the capacitor and finally eliminated by means of the pre-charging/discharging circuit before the power is applied again to the plasma processing chamber. Thus, the energy is finally lost, which makes the operation inefficient.
Apart from the problem of the energy in the cables, another problem impeding an efficient handling of arcs may arise when the time of interruption of the power supply is not optimal, e.g. the time is too short to quench an arc.
In the patent U.S. Pat. No. 6,621,674 B1, it is proposed to adjust the time interval during which the voltage is applied to the electrodes in an adaptive manner, whereas the time interval during which the voltage is disconnected is kept constant.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONOne object of the present invention is to provide a power supply device for plasma processing which allows the handling of arc events in a more efficient way.
According to a first aspect of the invention this object is achieved with a power supply device comprising a recovery energy circuit for feeding at least partially the energy back which is stored in the conductors when the power supply to the plasma processing chamber is interrupted. The power supply circuit is configured to reuse the energy fed back at least partially for the power supplied to the plasma processing chamber.
According to a second aspect of the invention there is provided a power supply device comprising a first switch and an inductance circuit that comprises an inductor and a second switch. The first switch is arranged outside of the inductance circuit and the second switch is connected parallel to the inductor.
According to a third aspect of the invention there is provided a power supply device comprising a controller being configured to determine a quenching time interval by means of a self-adaptive process. The quenching time interval defines the time interval during which, in an event of an arc, no voltage is generated across the output terminals of the power supply device.
Each of the three aspects has the advantage that arcs which occur in the plasma processing chamber can be handled in a more efficient way.
The subject invention will now be described in terms of its preferred embodiments. These embodiments are set forth to aid the understanding of the invention, but are not to be construed as limiting.
The power supply device comprises a power supply circuit 10 to produce a DC voltage across the terminals 16 and 17. In the embodiment shown in
The first terminal 16 of the power supply circuit 10 is connected via an inductor 21 and a serial switch 25 to the negative output terminal 1. The switch 25 is e.g. a transistor such as an IGBT and is controlled by the controller 60.
The second terminal 17 is connected to the positive output terminal 2 and via a capacitor 27 to the first terminal 16. The inductor 21 limits the temporal variation of the current, dI/dt, during an arc event (see the moderate slope of curve 71 in
A switch 22 is arranged parallel to the inductor 21. The switch 22 is e.g. a transistor, such as an IGBT or a power MOSFET and is controlled by the controller 60.
In case that the switch 22 is an IGBT 22″ as shown in
In case that the switch 22 is an avalanche rated power MOSFET, it has an inherent overvoltage protection.
An overvoltage may e.g. occur in the case that the plasma does not re-ignite after the switch 25 has been closed again and the switch 22 is opening after an arc event, so that the voltage across the inductor 21 is increased, or in the case that—due to a malfunction—the switch 25 is opening when the switch 22 is opened.
In the embodiment shown in
The power supply device shown in
The PFPN circuit 30 comprises a diode 31 and a switch 32. The switch 32 is e.g. a transistor such as an IGBT and is controlled by the controller 60.
The energy recovery circuit 40 comprises a first line 41 which connects the negative output terminal 1 via a diode 45 to the primary winding 46a of a transformer 46, a second line 42 which connects the positive output terminal 2 to the primary winding 46a of the transformer 46, a third line 43 which connects the secondary winding 46b of the transformer 46 via a diode 47 to a first input terminal 18 of the power supply circuit 10, and a fourth line 44 which connects the secondary winding 46b of the transformer 46 to a second input terminal 19 of the power supply circuit 10.
The power supply circuit 10 comprises a capacitor 9, which is connected to the first input terminal 18 and the second input terminal 19. Thus, the power supply circuit 10 is suitable to reuse the energy which is fed back via the energy recovery circuit 40 at least partially for the power supplied to the plasma processing chamber 7.
In an alternative embodiment the energy recovery circuit 40′ is designed as shown in
The power supply device shown in
In the following the operation of the power device is explained in more detail. In the event that an arc occurs, the controller 60 controls the switches 22, 25, and 32 to activate the circuits 20, 30, and 40 such that the arc is suppressed and/or quenched and the normal operation mode is recovered in an efficient way.
In the following, successive instances of time t are referred to as t0, t1, t2, etc. The following table summarizes the successive states of the switches 22, 25, and 32, where “OFF” means that the switch is open and “ON” means that the switch is closed. For some of time intervals the switches 22 and 32 may be either ON or OFF (denoted in the table by “or”). In case of transistors, a switch 22, 25, or 32 is “ON”, when it is in the conducting state, and “OFF”, when it is in the non-conducting state.
By actuating the switches 22, 25, 32, the voltage U between the target 8 and the positive electrode 6 and the current I passing through the electrodes 5 and 6 change in time.
At time t0 the plasma processing is in the normal operation mode, where material in the processing chamber 7 is deposited or etched according to the setup of the plasma processing installation. The voltage U has a value which is in the present example negative. The switch 22 is open or closed, the switch 32 is open, and the switch 25 is closed. Thus, there is a current flowing from the terminal 17 through the wire 4 and the plasma in the processing chamber 7 back to the terminal 16 via the wire 3. This is schematically shown in
At time t1 an electric arc occurs in the processing chamber 7, which has the effect that the voltage U tends to zero, whereas the current I increases (see the curves 70 and 71 between the two instants of time t1 and t2 in
At time t2 the arc detection circuit 61 detects the arc occurrence in the processing chamber 7 and produces an arc detection signal causing the controller 60 to close the switch 22 and to open the switch 25. The energy in the wires 3, 4 at the time t2 is approximately given by Lc·I2/2, where Lc is the inductance of the wires 3, 4. The current originating from the energy in the wires 3, 4 begins to flow via the energy recovery circuit 40 to the power supply circuit 10, where it is stored in the capacitor 9. This is schematically shown in
Referring back to
As can be seen from
In
At time t5 the switch 32 is opened. t5 is chosen such that the arc is unlikely to reoccur.
At time t6, which may be shortly after t5, the switch 25 is closed which has the effect that the power of the power supply circuit 10 is supplied again to the electrodes 5 and 6. At the same time, the current 82 circulating in the switch 22 will pass progressively through the plasma. The voltage U across the electrodes 5 and 6 goes back to a negative value, whereas the current I increases again (see time interval t6-t7 of curves 70 and 71 in
At time t7, the switch 22 is opened, such that the remaining current 82 flowing through the switch 22 is forced to flow into the plasma, which accelerates the process of recovering the plasma. The voltage U changes further by an amount of U22, which is the voltage across the switch 22 at time t7, whereas the current I increases further. If the switch 22 is a transistor which is apt to operated in the avalanche mode, it is possible to dissipate the energy of this residual current 82, such that not all of this energy has to be absorbed by the plasma. (See
At time t8, the arc detection circuit 61 checks whether the conditions for an arc are still met. (This is not the case in the example shown in
At time t9, the current flowing through the inductor 21 corresponds to the current I passing through the plasma and the switch 22 may be closed again.
At time t9, the plasma processing is in the normal operation mode as it was at time t0.
In the following an example of detecting and quenching an arc and its timing are discussed. The arc detection circuit 61 is designed such that it generates an arc detection signal when at least one of the following conditions is met (in the following denoted by “arc conditions”):
1. The current I in the plasma exceeds a certain value I1,
2. the absolute value of the voltage between the electrodes 5 and 6 (denoted by |U|) drops by a certain amount U0 while at the same time the current I in the plasma is above a certain minimum value I2,
3. the absolute value of the voltage |U| falls below a threshold U1 while at the same time the current I is above a certain minimum value I3.
In the present embodiment the minimum values I2 and I3 are set to be equal.
The controller 60 is adapted to receive various parameters for operating the power supply device which may be set by the user. Optionally, the controller 60 may be designed such that the operating parameters are variable in time by using a self-adaptive process to set one or more of the operating parameters during operation. The operating parameters comprises e.g. the voltage change U0 or the thresholds U1, I1 and I2 for arc detection, which are used by the arc detection circuit 61, and the various time intervals (delays) for controlling the switches 22, 25, 32 and the bridge circuit 13. Examples of such delay parameters are:
D1: time interval during which the power supply device tries to quench an arc before the bridge circuit 13 is switched off. Thus, D1 defines the number of times the switch 25 is, in an event of an arc, actuated before the power supply circuit 10 is switched off.
D2: time interval during which the bridge circuit 13 is switched off.
D3: time interval when the switch 25 is open. D3 corresponds to the interval t2-t6 in the example of
D4: time interval during which the arc conditions are to be met before the switch 25 is opened. D4 corresponds to the interval t1-t2 in the example of
D5: time interval between the closing of switch 25 and the checking step whether the plasma condition is met, i.e. whether the arc event is over. D5 corresponds to the interval t6-t8 in the example of
As already mentioned above, the parameters may be variably set by a self-adaptive process. For example, the threshold U1 can be given by the average plasma voltage |U| plus a predefined valued. The delays D2 and D3 define the quenching time interval during which, in an event of an arc, no voltage is generated across the output terminals 1, 2.
The delay D3 may be set by means of the self-adaptive process such that D3 is increased if the plasma does not recover after one cycle of actuating the switches 22, 25, 32 to quench the arc.
The power supply device according to the invention is suitable for any plasma processing operation, such as sputtering, PECVD (Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapour Deposition), etching, etc. The plasma processing operation may include usual materials as well as materials which are difficult to be processed such as zinc oxide (ZnO) or aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO).
The power supply device according to the invention has the advantage that when the power to the processing chamber is interrupted, less energy is involved in the arc occurrence. Thereby, the arc can be quenched quickly and the risk of damaging the target (and/or substrate when present) is reduced. In addition, it has been found that possible consecutive arcs are suppressed in an efficient way, such that the number of arc events is reduced.
Although the present invention has been described in relation to particular embodiments thereof, many other variations and modifications and other uses will become apparent to those skilled in the art. It is preferred, therefore, that the present invention be limited not by the specific disclosure herein, but only by the appended claims.
Claims
1. A power supply device for plasma processing, wherein electric arcs may occur, the power supply device comprising:
- a power supply circuit for generating a voltage across output terminals;
- said output terminals for connection via conductors to a plasma processing chamber;
- a first switch connected between said power supply circuit and one of said output terminals for interrupting the power supply to said plasma processing chamber in case of an occurrence of an arc; and
- an inductance circuit arranged between said power supply circuit and one of said output terminals, and the inductance circuit comprises an inductor and a second switch,
- wherein said first switch is arranged outside of said inductance circuit, and said second switch is connected parallel to said inductor.
2. The power supply device according to claim 1, wherein at least one of said first switch and said second switch is an IGBT, a power MOSFET or another kind of transistor.
3. The power supply device according to claim 1, wherein said second switch is a transistor being apt to be operated in the avalanche mode.
4. The power supply device according to claim 1, wherein said inductance circuit further comprises an overvoltage protection module for protecting said second switch from overvoltage.
5. The power supply device according to claim 1, further comprising:
- a second inductance circuit arranged between said power supply circuit and one of said output terminals,
- wherein said second inductance circuit comprises a second inductor and a third switch connected parallel to said second inductor.
6. The power supply device according to claim 1, further comprising:
- an arc detection circuit for detecting arc events in said plasma processing chamber, said arc detection circuit being configured to determine at least one of the following criteria defining an arc event:
- a current I through electrodes, between which the plasma is generated, exceeds a given value I1;
- an absolute value of the voltage, |U|, across said electrodes drops by a given amount U0, while said current I is above a given minimum value I2; and
- |U| falls below a threshold U1 while said current I is above a given minimum value I3.
7. The power supply device according to claim 1, further comprising a floating potential neutralizing circuit connected to said output terminals for reducing the floating potential which is produced on at least one of a target and a substrate located in said plasma processing chamber after said first switch is actuated to interrupt the power supply to said plasma processing chamber.
8. The power supply device according to claim 7, wherein said floating potential neutralizing circuit comprises a third switch with a serial diode connected to said output terminals.
9. The power supply device according to claim 1, wherein said power supply circuit is designed to generate a continuous DC voltage or a pulsed DC voltage across said output terminals.
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Type: Grant
Filed: Mar 18, 2013
Date of Patent: Oct 7, 2014
Patent Publication Number: 20130271885
Assignee: Solvix GmbH
Inventors: Albert Bulliard (Marly), Benoit Fragniere (Bulle), Joel Oehen (Granges-Paccot)
Primary Examiner: Scott Bauer
Application Number: 13/846,430
International Classification: H02H 3/00 (20060101); H02H 7/00 (20060101); H01J 37/34 (20060101); H02H 1/06 (20060101); H02H 3/38 (20060101); H01J 37/32 (20060101);